The 2024 European elections will end when Italian polls close at 23:00 CET today (9 June), with results starting to come in overnight.
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While some countries, including the Netherlands, have already voted, member states will wait for Italians to cast their final votes before the first official results are known, to ensure that countries that voted earlier do not influence the outcome of the ongoing vote.
Polling stations in Italy opened on Saturday afternoon, closed at 11pm and then reopened for the day today, giving Italians longer time to vote than in many other European countries.
By contrast, in Luxembourg, where voting is compulsory for anyone under 75, polling stations will only be open for six hours, from 8am to 2pm.
Polls open at different times across Europe, with Belgium at 4pm, Austria at 5pm, France and Germany at 6pm, and Spain and Portugal at 8pm.
What to watch tonight and when
2pm-5pm – Voting closes in Luxembourg, Belgium and Austria 6pm – Voting closes in France and Germany After 6pm – National exit polls scheduled 8:15pm – European Parliament will project the total number of MEPs based on data from 11 countries 11pm – Voting closes in Italy 11:15pm-11:30pm – Parliament will project the total number of MEPs based on data from all countries 1pm – Final results scheduled
The European Parliament cannot announce official results but is expected to release a partial forecast at around 6:15 pm and a first forecast for the full half-cycle at 8:15 pm based on the composition of the outgoing Parliament. The data comes from collated exit polls and pre-election opinion polls.
Euronews will bring you the latest news and expert analysis through a special live programme broadcast from the European Parliament from 17:00 CET.
In countries where voting has already closed, national broadcasters and official websites will be displaying estimates for parties and political groups based on local exit polls, as well as voter turnout data from the country’s electoral authorities, throughout the afternoon and evening.
The delay in publishing the results has been a target of disinformation in countries such as Spain, with social media campaigns referring to “information censorship” and suggesting the government is tampering with the results before releasing them to the public.
But the rule of waiting until the last member state has voted before announcing official results has been standard practice in the past three EU elections.
Listen in as our reporters bring you the latest news and election results live in our election hub.
